Leo VI the Wise

Leo VI, surnamed the Wise or the Philosopher , was Byzantine emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty

Macedonian dynasty

The Macedonian dynasty ruled the Byzantine Empire from 867 to 1056, following the Amorian dynasty. During this period, the Byzantine state reached its greatest expanse since the Muslim conquests, and the Macedonian Renaissance in letters and arts began. The dynasty was named after its founder,...

(although his parentage is unclear), he was very well-read, leading to his surname. During his reign, the renaissance of letters begun by his predecessor Basil I

Basil I

Basil I, called the Macedonian was a Byzantine emperor of probable Armenian descent who reigned from 867 to 886. Born a simple peasant in the Byzantine theme of Macedonia, he rose in the imperial court, and usurped the imperial throne from Emperor Michael III...

continued, but the Empire also saw several military defeats in the Balkans against Bulgaria

Second Bulgarian Empire

The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

.

Early life

Eudokia Ingerina was the wife of the Byzantine emperor Basil I, the mistress of his predecessor Michael III, and the mother to both the Emperors Leo VI and Alexander and Patriarch Stephen I of Constantinople.-Family:...

Michael III , , Byzantine Emperor from 842 to 867. Michael III was the third and traditionally last member of the Amorian-Phrygian Dynasty...

or the second son of his successor, Basil I the Macedonian. Eudokia was both Michael III's mistress and Basil’s wife. In 867, Michael was assassinated by Basil, who succeeded him as emperor. As the second eldest son of the Emperor, Leo was associated on the throne in 870 and became the direct heir on the death of his older half-brother Constantine in 879. However, Leo and Basil did not like each other; a relationship that only deteriorated after Eudokia's death, when Leo, unhappy with his marriage to Theophano Martiniake, took up a mistress in the person of Zoe Zaoutzaina

Zoe Zaoutzaina

Zoe Zaoutzaina was the second wife of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise. She was the daughter of Stylianos Zaoutzes, a high-ranking bureaucrat during the reign of her husband.-Royal mistress:...

. Basil married Zoe off to an insignificant official, and later almost had Leo blinded when he was accused of conspiring against him. On August 29, 886, Basil died in a hunting accident, though he claimed on his deathbed that there was an assassination

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

attempt in which Leo was possibly involved.

Domestic policy

One of the first actions of Leo VI after his succession was the reburial of Michael III in Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, which contributed to the suspicion that he was (or at least believed himself to be) in truth Michael's son. Seeking political reconciliation, the new emperor secured the support of the officials in the capital, and surrounded himself with bureaucrats like Stylianos Zaoutzes

Stylianos Zaoutzes

Stylianos Zaoutzes was a high Byzantine official of Armenian origin. Rising to high rank under Byzantine emperor Basil I , he then rose further to prominence under Basil's successor Emperor Leo VI the Wise , who had a close friendship and possible an affair with Stylianos's daughter Zoe Zaoutzaina...

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 913 to 959...

. His attempts to control the great aristocratic families (e.g., the Phokadai

Phokas (Byzantine family)

Phokas or Phocas , feminine form Phokaina , was the name of a Byzantine aristocratic clan from Cappadocia, which in the 9th and 10th centuries provided a series of high-ranking generals and an emperor, Nikephoros II Phokas...

and the Doukai) occasionally led to serious conflicts, the most significant being the revolt of Andronikos Doukas

Andronikos Doukas (general under Leo VI)

Andronikos Doukas or Doux was a Byzantine general and rebel in the reign of Emperor Leo VI the Wise . The first member of the illustrious Doukas line to achieve prominence as a successful general, his rivalry with the powerful eunuch Samonas led to his revolt and eventual defection to the Arabs in...

in 906.

Leo also attempted to control the church through his appointments to the patriarchate. He dismissed the Patriarch

Patriarch of Constantinople

The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....

Photios, who had been his tutor, and replaced him with his own 19-year-old brother Stephen

Patriarch Stephen I of Constantinople

Stephen I was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 886 to 893.Stephen was the son of Eudokia Ingerina and, officially, Emperor Basil I. However, at the time when he was conceived, Eudokia was the mistress of Emperor Michael III...

in December 886. On Stephen's death in 893, Leo replaced him with Zaoutzes' nominee, Antony II Kauleas, who died in 901. Leo then promoted his own imperial secretary (mystikos

Mystikos

The mystikos was an important Byzantine office of the imperial chancery from the 9th through to the 15th centuries. Its initial role is unclear; he was probably the emperor's private secretary. In time, the office also exercised judicial duties...

Nicholas I Mystikos or Nicholas I Mysticus was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from March 901 to February 906 and from May 912 to his death in 925. His feast day in the Orthodox Church is May 16.Nicholas was born in the Italian Peninsula and had become a friend of the Patriarch Photios...

, but suspicions that he was involved in the failed assassination attempt against Leo in 903 as well as his opposition to Leo’s fourth marriage saw Nicholas replaced with Leo’s spiritual father Euthymios in 907.

Larnaca, is the third largest city on the southern coast of Cyprus after Nicosia and Limassol. It has a population of 72,000 and is the island's second largest commercial port and an important tourist resort...

was constructed during Leo VI rule in the late 9th century, and it was built after the relics of St. Lazaros were transported from Crete to Constantinople. The church is one of the best examples of Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...

The term Basilika or 'Basilica' refers to a code of laws issued by the Eastern Roman emperor Leo VI the Wise . Written entirely in Greek, the 'Basilica', in 60 books, adapt the 6th-century Justinian code to the conditions of the 9th- and 10th-century Empire, and include laws issued by Leo VI and...

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...

Hārūn al-Rashīd was the fifth Arab Abbasid Caliph in Iraq. He was born in Rey, Iran, close to modern Tehran. His birth date remains a point of discussion, though, as various sources give the dates from 763 to 766)....

, to the effect that Leo would sometimes disguise himself and go about Constantinople look for injustice or corruption. According to one story, he was even captured by the city guards during one of his investigations. Late in the evening, he was walking alone and disguised. Though he bribed two patrols for 12 nomismata, and moved on, the third city patrol arrested him. When a terrified guardian recognized the jailed ruler in the morning, the arresting officer was rewarded for doing his duty, while the other patrols were dismissed and punished severely.

Foreign policy

Leo VI's fortune in war was more mixed than Basil's had been. In indulging his chief counselor Stylianos Zaoutzes, Leo provoked a war with Simeon I of Bulgaria

Simeon I of Bulgaria

Simeon I the Great ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927, during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon's successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever, making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern Europe...

in 894, but was defeated. Bribing the Magyars to attack the Bulgarians

First Bulgarian Empire

The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...

from the north, Leo scored an indirect success in 895. However, deprived of his new allies, he lost the major Battle of Boulgarophygon in 896 and had to make the required commercial concessions and to pay annual tribute.

Although he won a victory against the Emirate of Tarsus in 900 in which the Arab army was destroyed and the Emir himself captured, in the west the Emirate of Sicily

Emirate of Sicily

The Emirate of Sicily was an Islamic state on the island of Sicily , which existed from 965 to 1072.-First Arab invasions of Sicily:...

Taormina is a comune and small town on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy, in the Province of Messina, about midway between Messina and Catania. Taormina has been a very popular tourist destination since the 19th century...

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, in 902. Nevertheless, Leo continued to apply pressure on his eastern frontier, through the creation of the new thema of Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia (theme)

Mesopotamia was the name of a Byzantine theme located in what is today eastern Turkey. It should not be confused with the region of Mesopotamia or with the older Roman and early Byzantine province of Mesopotamia...

, a Byzantine invasion of Armenia in 902 and the sacking of Theodosiopolis, as well as successful raids in the Arab Thughur.

The Sack of Thessalonica in 904 by Saracen pirates was one of the worst disasters to befall the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century. A Muslim fleet, led by the renegade Leo of Tripoli, and with the imperial capital of Constantinople as its initial target, sailed from Syria...

Thessalonica with his pirates – an event described in The Capture of Thessalonica by John Kaminiates

John Kaminiates

John Kaminiates was a Greek resident of Thessalonica when the city, then one of the largest in the Byzantine Empire, was besieged and sacked by a Saracen force led by Leo of Tripoli in 904...

Himerios , also Himerius, was a Byzantine administrator and admiral of the early 10th century, best known as the commander of the Byzantine navy during its struggles with the resurgent Muslim navies in the period 900–912.-Life:...

in 911–912 failed disastrously. Nevertheless, the same period also saw the establishment of the important frontier provinces (kleisoura

Kleisoura (Byzantine district)

In the Byzantine Empire, a kleisoura was a term traditionally applied to a fortified mountain pass and the military district protecting it. By the late 7th century, it came to be applied to more extensive frontier districts, distinct from the larger themata, chiefly along the Empire's eastern...

Lykandos or Lycandus was the name of a Byzantine fortress and military-civilian province , known as the Theme of Lykandos, in the 10th–11th centuries.-History:...

and Leontokome on territory recently taken from the Arabs. In 907 Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

The Rus'–Byzantine War of 907 is associated in the Primary Chronicle with the name of Oleg of Novgorod. The chronicle implies that it was the most successful military operation of the Kievan Rus' against the Byzantine Empire. Paradoxically, Greek sources do not mention it at all.- Primary Chronicle...

Oleg of Novgorod was a Varangian prince who ruled all or part of the Rus' people during the early 10th century....

, who was seeking favourable trading rights with the empire. Leo paid them off, but they attacked again in 911, and a trade treaty

Rus'-Byzantine Treaty (911)

The Rus'–Byzantine Treaty of 911 is the most comprehensive and detailed treaty concluded between the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus in the 10th century...

was finally signed.

The Moechian Controversy

Leo VI caused a major scandal with his numerous marriages which failed to produce a legitimate heir to the throne. His first wife Theophano

Theophano, wife of Leo VI

- Family :She was a daughter of Constantine Martiniakos. Her further ancestry is uncertain. However, Theophanes Continuatus, a continuation of the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor by writers active during the reign of Constantine VII, records the story of a possible ancestor during the reign...

, whom Basil had forced him to marry on account of her family connections to the Martinakioi, and whom Leo hated, died in 897, and Leo married Zoe Zaoutzaina

Zoe Zaoutzaina

Zoe Zaoutzaina was the second wife of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise. She was the daughter of Stylianos Zaoutzes, a high-ranking bureaucrat during the reign of her husband.-Royal mistress:...

, the daughter of his adviser Stylianos Zaoutzes, though she died as well in 899. Upon this marriage Leo created the title of basileopatōr

Basileopator

Basileopatōr was one of the highest secular titles of the Byzantine Empire. It was an exceptional post , and conferred only twice in the Empire's history...

("father of the emperor") for his father-in-law.

After Zoe's death a third marriage was technically illegal, but he married again, only to have his third wife Eudokia Baïana

Eudokia Baïana

Eudokia Baïana was the third wife of Leo VI the Wise.The work Theophanes Continuatus was a continuation of the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor by other writers, active during the reign of Constantine VII. The work records the few details known about her.According to Theophanes, Eudokia came...

die in 901. Instead of marrying a fourth time, which would have been an even greater sin than a third marriage (according to the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos

Nicholas Mystikos

Nicholas I Mystikos or Nicholas I Mysticus was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from March 901 to February 906 and from May 912 to his death in 925. His feast day in the Orthodox Church is May 16.Nicholas was born in the Italian Peninsula and had become a friend of the Patriarch Photios...

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 913 to 959...

in 905, but incurred the opposition of the patriarch. Replacing Nicholas Mystikos with Euthymios, Leo got his marriage recognized by the church (albeit with a long penance attached, and with an assurance that Leo would outlaw all future fourth marriages) but opened up a conflict (the so-called "Moechian Controversy" from the Greek moichos, "adulterer")) within it and allowed new grounds for papal intervention into Byzantine affairs when he sought and obtained papal consent.

Succession

The future Constantine VII was the illegitimate son born before Leo's uncanonical fourth marriage to Zoe Karbonopsina. To strengthen his son's position as heir, Leo had him crowned as co-emperor on May 15, 908, when he was only two years old. Leo VI died on May 11, 912. He was succeeded by his younger brother Alexander, who had reigned as emperor alongside his father and brother since 879.

Works

Leo VI was a prolific writer, and he produced works on many different topics and in many styles, including political orations, liturgical poems, and theological treatises. On many occasions he would personally deliver highly wrought and convoluted sermons in the churches of Constantinople.

In the subject matter of legal works and treatises, he established a legal commission that carried out his father's original intent of codifying all of existing Byzantine law. The end result was a 6 volume work consisting of 60 books, entitled the Basilika

Basilika

The term Basilika or 'Basilica' refers to a code of laws issued by the Eastern Roman emperor Leo VI the Wise . Written entirely in Greek, the 'Basilica', in 60 books, adapt the 6th-century Justinian code to the conditions of the 9th- and 10th-century Empire, and include laws issued by Leo VI and...

. Written in Greek, the Basilika translated and systematically arranged practically all of the laws preserved in the Corpus Juris Civilis

Corpus Juris Civilis

The Corpus Juris Civilis is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor...

, thereby providing a foundation upon which all later Byzantine laws could be built upon. Leo then began integrating new laws issued during his reign into the Basilika. Called "Novels" or "New Laws", these were codes that dealt with current problems and issues, such as the prohibition on fourth marriages. Both the Basilika and the Novels were concerned with ecclesiastical law (canon law

Canon law

Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...

) as well as secular law. Most importantly, from a historical perspective, they finally did away with much of the remaining legal and constitutional architecture that the Byzantine Empire had inherited from the Roman Empire, and even from the days of the Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...

, were finally removed from a legal perspective, even though these still continued in a lesser, decorative form.

The supposed Book of the Eparch and the Kletorologion of Philotheos were also issued under Leo's name and testify to his government’s interest in organization and the maintenance of public order. The Book of the Eparch described the rules and regulations for trade and trade organizations in Constantinople, while the Kletorologion was an attempt to standardize officials and ranks at the Byzantine court. Leo is also the author, or at least sponsor, of the Tactica

Tactica of Emperor Leo VI the Wise

The Tactica is a military treatise written by or on behalf of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise in ca. 895-908. Drawing on earlier authors such as Aelian, Onasander and the Strategikon of emperor Maurice, it is one of the major works on Byzantine military tactics, written on the eve of Byzantium's...

, a notable treatise on military operations.

Succeeding generations saw Leo as a prophet and a magician, and soon a collection of oracular poems and some short divinatory texts, the so-called Oracles of Leo the Wise, at least in part based on earlier Greek sources, were attached to the emperor's name in later centuries, and were believed to foretell the future of the world.

In Christianity, the translation of relics is the removal of holy objects from one locality to another ; usually only the movement of the remains of the saint's body would be treated so formally, with secondary relics such as items of clothing treated with less ceremony...

Lazarus of Bethany, also known as Saint Lazarus or Lazarus of the Four Days, is the subject of a prominent miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death...

to Constantinople in the year 890. There are several stichera (hymns) attributed to him which are chanted on Lazarus Saturday

Lazarus Saturday

Lazarus Saturday, in the Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite, is the day before Palm Sunday, and is liturgically linked to it...

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

. He also composed hymns which are sung on the Great Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

Family

- Family :She was a daughter of Constantine Martiniakos. Her further ancestry is uncertain. However, Theophanes Continuatus, a continuation of the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor by writers active during the reign of Constantine VII, records the story of a possible ancestor during the reign...

Louis the Blind was the king of Provence from January 11, 887, King of Italy from October 12, 900, and briefly Holy Roman Emperor, as Louis III, between 901 and 905. He was the son of Boso, the usurper king of Provence, and Ermengard, a daughter of the Emperor Louis II. Through his father, he was...

Eudokia Baïana was the third wife of Leo VI the Wise.The work Theophanes Continuatus was a continuation of the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor by other writers, active during the reign of Constantine VII. The work records the few details known about her.According to Theophanes, Eudokia came...